Buttermilk Pancakes

This is what we had for dinner tonight - yes pancakes for dinner! It's school holidays here at the moment + a public holiday today + the kids have done a great job the past few days spring cleaning their rooms, so I thought it would be nice to break the usual routine and have a treat. And it was GOOOOD!!! Tonight we had them with raspberries, blueberries, icecream and a drizzle of maple syrup. Normally when we have them for breakfast we have them with berries, sliced banana and maple syrup or occasionally bacon and maple syrup - don't knock it till you've tried it lol!

We always have pancakes for breakfast on special occasions - birthdays, mother's day, Christmas, and any other day we deem to be special :) I've tried lots of different pancake recipes over the years. A few tips and tricks I've learned and worked out when making pancakes are:

• use a non stick pan if possible and don't grease it at all - it's the best way to get a nice even golden colour. I used to grease the pan with a little butter, but I found it made the outside cook too fast and it would burn while the inside was still gooey
• cook them over a gentle heat (med-low) so they have time to cook through without the outside burning
• leave the batter to rest for 5-10mins after mixing before you start cooking - this helps to get nice light and fluffy pancakes as opposed to rubbery ones
• lastly, whatever recipe you use, substitute ordinary milk with buttermilk.

My favourite pancake recipe for the past few months has been from Julie Goodwin's first cookbook. I don't know what makes them taste so good, but I suspect it has something to do with using buttermilk instead of ordinary milk. It makes them so light and fluffy - YUM! I don't know all the ins and outs of buttermilk. But a few things I do know... despite the name it is actually low fat. It used to be a by-product of making butter. I guess the closet thing it could be compared to is plain yoghurt, it's kind of like a cultured or "soured" kind of milk. I'm not quite sure of the science behind it, but it is fantastic in baking. I think it has something to do with acid reacting with alkali... well let's just say it make things all light & fluffy and supermoist, VERY scientific and technical lol! I use it all the time in baking now in place of milk - in cakes, muffins, pikelets, scones - it does amazing things for scones. Give it a try next time you're baking, you won't be disappointed!

**edited to add** I just found a link to Julie's buttermilk pancake recipe here. This is exactly the same one as I use and it's the best I've tried :) Enjoy!

5 minute chocolate mug cake

I first came across this recipe a couple of years ago and it has become one of my favourite desserts, because it is so ridiculously quick and easy to make and it uses basic pantry ingredients. Tonight I decided to add some raspberries to the mix and I don't think I'll be able to eat it without them in future. The raspberries took it to a whole new level of delicious-ness :) It reminds me of the gorgeous chocolate coated raspberries that my lovely cousin has brought me, all the way from beautiful Tasmania. My only regret is that we didn't have any icecream to go with it! As the name suggests, it's intended for cooking in a mug. However, I find at least half of the mixture spills over and all over the microwave turntable when cooking. So I now use a 1 litre capacity pyrex dish to cook it in. The recipe easily serves 2 people.

In the photo below, the cake looks a little dry - I can assure you it wasn't :)

The recipe...
5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
4 tablespoons self raising flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons melted butter (or oil if you prefer)
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract


1 large coffee mug or microwave safe bowl
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips and raspberries (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

Junkmail origami

It's school holidays here. Unfortunately we happen to be without a car for 3 weeks, 2 of those weeks being school holidays - AAAARGH!!! It actually hasn't been too bad, until today. Everyone started getting cabin fever. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't make quick decisions lol. Well today that all changed. After argument #547 this morning, almost without thinking I grabbed the pile of junk mail I'd pulled from the letterbox earlier and my big origami book and gave it to my 2 bickering wonderful children. I don't know why I hadn't thought of using junkmail for origami before - it saves them from taking all the paper out of my printer. I showed them how to fold the top edge diagonally across to the side edge and tear off the extra strip at the bottom with a ruler - to make a square. My 7 yr old made the boat (pictured above) and decided to test it out in the bathroom sink. The great thing about that is 1. he has lots of fun with it, 2. it gets all soggy and has to be thrown out - what a shame ;) I love keeping things my children make, but all mums with small children know you can only keep so much!

Take a look...

... here

Been busy making beanies...

... see? :) I've had lots of people asking me to make one (or a few) for them or their children - which makes me so happy!

I'm not entirely happy with my first attempt at earflaps... I have worked out a new way of doing them - which is great as I am working on two for an order right now!

I'll be back during the week with something exciting... Stay tuned :)

Slow & steady...

This blanket is taking a LOT longer than I thought it would. I planned to have finished it by now. With only 4 weeks left of winter (YAY!!!), it's not looking like I will have it finished before the weather starts getting warm. Since I've started crocheting lots of other smaller projects (beanies, scarves etc) this blanket has kind of been put on the backburner apart from random bursts of motivation I get when I'm able to churn out a few squares.

So here is my progress so far (apart from a few more squares that I forgot to get out of my crochet bag before taking the pic)...

I'm not sure how big it will end up now. But I need to at least double the current size. I've never been good at finishing big projects so I need to keep plodding along with this for as long as it takes. Can you tell my enthusiasm for it has waned a little since I first started lol. I think it's mainly because I've found so many other things I want to get started and I've also been looking at lots of new wool and different colour combinations. I don't really like the colours I chose for this one anymore. So I'd better get back to it and finish it ASAP before it becomes yet another unfinished project...

shaggy ink caps

Nothing "crafty" in this post - unless of course I draw inspiration for a new beanie design called the shaggy ink cap ;p lol! I found these mushrooms (toadstools???) in the lawn this this morning. Last winter several of them appeared overnight out of nowhere. I did a bit of research to find out what they are and apparently they're called "Shaggy Ink Caps". They are also supposedly edible when young and still white. I'm not brave enough to eat them though! They end up opening and turning black - obviously where the "ink" part comes from. You can't really tell from the photos, but they are quite big - about 15-20cm tall!